Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa

Scientist Spotlight #4 – Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa
Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa (Dr. Q) is a neurosurgeon and
researcher formerly at Johns Hopkins University and now at
the Mayo Clinic in Florida. Born in Mexico, Dr. Q came to the
U.S. in his teens as an undocumented migrant farm worker.
Shorty after, he began his education at a California community
college and then transferred to UC Berkeley before earning his
medical degree at Harvard University and completing his
residency at UC San Francisco. Widely regarded as one of the
world’s finest surgeons and scientists, Dr. Q operates on
hundreds of brain tumors every year and also works with a
diverse team of researchers to conduct cutting-edge brain
cancer research.
Video #1 – This is a 6.5-minute video that describes Dr. Q’s background and how his early experiences relate
to his current work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkHBllw29jM
Video #2 – In this 16-minute video Dr. Q describes his current research and how his patients contribute to
his work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU2ztdBzGEc
After watching the two videos above, please answer the following questions and submit your answers
(without the text of the questions) to the submission link on the assignment page:
1. How did Dr. Q’s early experiences contribute to his success as a surgeon and researcher?
2. Briefly describe how Dr. Q and his team are researching a treatment for brain cancer.
3. Describe how Dr. Q’s relationship with his patients helps him do his work.
4. What did you learn about the types of people who do science by watching these videos?
5. What was most interesting or surprising about these videos?